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Sunday, January 30, 2011

After a couple of weeks away, I'm back and so ready to catch up on things I haven't been able to do lately. First, I need to thank all of you who left comments in the past two or three weeks, especially those comments left after I posted about the loss of my godfather. I'm so happy to hear how so many of you have godparents or are godparents because it's such an important role in life. Your messages were comforting and made me smile. Although I haven't been able to respond individually to each comment, I can't tell you how much I appreciated every one of them.

I need to catch up on my blog reading. I have been reading some of your posts hit and miss over the past couple of weeks but haven't been able to leave many comments. I hope to catch up on what all you've been doing.

A lot has been happening around here. We had some teenage drama with my son which needed our attention. He's fine and he didn't do anything wrong but it all made me start to think that texting and Facebook are a bad bad thing in the hands of 14 year olds who sometimes can't think their way out of paper bag. Once our son was good to go, I was stopped in my tracks with the worst cold I think I've ever had. It was so bad, I kept thinking it must be the flu but nope, just a horrible cold that had me out of commission for several days. So, needless to say, I haven't posted about things I had planned to or even started projects I wanted to have completed by now. To top it off, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area is supposed to have the coldest temperatures maybe ever on record this coming week so there won't be any way to paint or work in the garage and with possible freezing rain, sleet and snow, I guess there won't be much shopping in my future this week either. Oh well, I don't live far from where all the Super Bowl action will be over the next week so I guess it will be easier to just stay home...or get out of town since Canton First Monday is next weekend :)

Before I was sidelined, I did pick up the coolest "G" I had intended to show you. It's big and industrial and metal and awesome (at least to me). It's just over a foot tall and about 3 1/2 inches deep. It has rivets and a few little dents and scratches with just a touch of rust.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Last week was a tough week for us. I was torn whether or not to share because this is primarily a decorating blog with the occasional recipe thrown in. As I read other blogs I love, others have shared the occasional personal story of what is going on and I'm told that writing and sharing can be a healing process. So, I tried to write about the week in which two major events happened in our family...and this was hard to write...but here it is. I may have to break it up into two parts since part of it centers around one of the oldest members of our family while the other part centers on one of the youngest.

Does anyone still designate people as official "godparents" for their children anymore? When I was little, I knew a lot of people who had godparents but now I don't hear so much about it anymore. When I was christened as an infant, my parents stood before the minister holding me and praying I would have a blessed life. Next to them stood their best friends who were asked to take on the role of godparents to me and later to my younger sister.

My mom is holding me and my dad is to her left. My godmother is to her right
and my godfather is the tall guy in the back. The other folks are grandparents.
(Yes, my mother was quite the fashionista)

My godmother never had children of her own and my godfather had a daughter from his first marriage. So, my sister and I became the little apples of their eyes just as we were in our parents'. My godparents spoiled us...rotten. We spent weekends with them and they spent every holiday, birthday, special event with us. It was a special time and created such a wonderful childhood for me.

my godparents and me

My godmother, Linda, passed away unexpectedly when I was in the 8th grade. It was a traumatic event for me. It was the first time I felt such sadness. But my godfather, Robert, lived on and continued his role as godfather. If something would have happened to my parents, he would have taken us on as a single parent. My parents never asked anyone else to fill this role. Thankfully, my parents lived long enough to raise us to adulthood until we were on our own.

My father passed away first and my mother was devastated and really couldn't function for awhile. Robert stepped in and helped us through that time. He guided us through the financial situation, the funeral arrangements, and anything else we needed. Several years later, my mother passed away. It really doesn't matter how old you are when your parents are gone, you still feel like a child whose a little lost for a bit. Robert took his godfather role seriously and even though I was almost 40, he guided me and advised me and helped me to cope and plan and deal with the funeral, the estate and whatever else came along. We continued to spend all of our holidays and family events together. He was one of the first family members to hold my son when he was born.

Robert holding me

Robert holding my son

On Monday of last week, I got a phone call. Robert had passed away at the age of 82. He had been ill but it was still a bit unexpected. My son really knew him as sort of a grandfather figure since my dad had passed away before my son was born. My son is the same age I was when my godmother passed away. It's been tough losing him. He was a rock; a sort of foundation of the family. I still have a lot of family: aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, nieces and nephews but my godparents were special. They volunteered to potentially take on so much just because they loved my parents.

So I wonder, does anyone have godparents anymore for their children? I hope so. My son does. We asked my best friend Jennie and her husband when my son was born and they said yes.
I can't imagine not ever having mine in my life and I will miss them.

...and that was just the first part of the week.

My apologies to everyone who has left a comment recently that went unanswered and for not visiting and commenting on your blogs very much.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

As I mentioned in my giveaway post, I had a little something else that everyone could win. As you may have read, I started blogging one year ago (Jan.1-2010) so I'm celebrating one whole year of blogging and reaching 350+ followers. The great people at Overstock.com contacted me and are offering a 10% discount to all of my followers. See below for details. First, let's have a look at a couple of things that might interest you...

There is so much to choose from! Everything from a down comforter for those of you buried in the snow or a new camera for those of you with better photography skills than me is available at Overstock.com. I know, I know, you're like, well how can I get the discount? Here's how: The discount code for my followers is: ?121745? which is good for 10% off Overstock products (excluding movies, books and electronics). The code never expires, however, it can only be used once per email address. Now you're saying, but you mentioned a camera and the discount's not good on electronics. It's not, but how about a free shipping promo code for electronics? It's 202234. So, head on over there, check out what you want and get a discount off of already great prices. Let me know what you get!

All the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my giveaway for a house number or name sign fromRamsign. Thank goodness for random number generators because if I had to just pick someone myself, it would be so hard. I would love for each of you to be winner so I could give you all something. Oh, but wait! I can! I have another surprise where everyone will win! I'll post about it later today or tomorrow. Stay tuned!

For the Ramsign giveaway, there can only be one winner and that lucky person is.....

This is Tamarah's blog button photo. It blows my mind because I have a very similar metal horse like this one; they may be the same horse. Hey Tamarah, is yours a child's toy they can ride on and make it go?

If you haven't had the pleasure of visiting her blog, I encourage you to take a look. In addition to great ideas and pictures, she's funny too. You should read about her run in

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A few days ago I posted about the idea of using vintage yardsticks as chair-rails but only showed you a tiny bit of the space where they were used. I mentioned that the space is not what you think. Here's a little more backstory on the space.

Back in November, Donna at Funky Junk Interiors wrote a great post about "what's stopping you?" from taking some risks to do things you want to do and achieve things you may have dreamt about. It is a great post and I encourage you to read if you haven't. It was a funny thing about that post...it was like she was reading my mind. Coincidentally, she did that post on my birthday. So, yeah, it spoke to me.

At the same time and even a few months leading up to that November, my pal, Jennie and I were seriously considering taking a risk. In fact, we've joked about it for years. The 2nd half of 2010 though, we talked and talked and talked about it. Should we? Could we? Jennie and I are notorious for taking forever to make decisions and commit to things. So, this was a HUGE decision for us. But you know what? We decided to take the risk. So, here's the rest of the space...and the rest of the story.

We opened a booth at a great local antique mall. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just said that..but yes, we did. I think we're crazy but it's been kind of fun...and scary. We opened it December 1, 2010 at the Lone Star Antique Mall in the northeast Fort Worth area. Our little spot is called "Secondary".

It's evolving.

I have a lot more pictures to show you about how it all came together and how it's going so far.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

...and we're off! I finished my first project of the new year this weekend.

It's a simple, quick one but it turned out well (or at least I think it did).

Back in October, you may recall this post where we refreshed our front porch.

Part of the "refresh" included replacing a piece of wood on one of our columns. That piece of wood was chippy and white but of course that doesn't look good on the front of the house but it might look good inside the house...so I kept it...and my husband gave me looks like I had lost my mind.

That little old piece of wood made a nice little sign to go in my kitchen.